■Michelle Mak／Jasmin Zhuang
Report of Amusement Rides and Entertainment Equipment RAAPA Expo 2019
RAAPA Expo 2019 was organized by the Russian Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (RAAPA). General Sponsor: Pax Design Co. General Media Partner: Amusement Industry Catalogue, magazine; web-based partners: vtorio.com, and others. GTI is moving forward again to Russia, exploring the latest state of the market at RAAPA Expo.

The number of first-timers increased significantly

Founded in 1999, RAAPA Expo is the largest professional amusement show in Russia, CIS countries and Eastern Europe. Around 200 companies from more than 20 countries all over the world (Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Germany, Italy, Canada, USA, Mexico, UAE, Turkey, Netherlands, China, Great Britain, Taiwan, Belgium, Poland, Slovakia, France, Bulgaria, and Switzerland) took part in the exhibition and presented all the main trends in the modern amusement industry: park rides, redemption machines and simulators, 5D cinemas, VR attractions, kiddie playgrounds and sports equipment, shooting galleries, trampolines and bounces, ropes courses, theme design, access control systems, automation systems, billiard and bowling, equipment for waterparks, vending and prize machines, park and FECs design services, staff training, event management, landscape design, food services, and many others. However, there are 38 new exhibitors, accounting for 21% of the total number of exhibitors. Among them, there are 29 exhibitors from China, including GTI, Zhongshan Airo, Cowboy, Qilong, Chuangying, Zigong Hualong, Gooest, Guangzhou Huale, Zhongshan Junye and Henan Hengtaihua, accounting for 16% of the total number of new exhibitors and 12 Chinese exhibitors are first-time exhibitors, which shows that China’s game and entertainment industry has great interest in the Russian market and even the European market, and this yet again proves that the entertainment market in Russia keeps developing.

Outstanding exhibition features

RAAPA EXPO-2019 has displayed current trends of the world entertainment market, modern technologies and leisure formats that will bring joy to the visitors of parks, waterparks, and FECs in the nearest future. In the course of the years, RAAPA EXPO has not only become the event where local and foreign manufacturers present their products and services twice a year, but turned into the unique business platform for amusement industry professionals’ networking and inception of new ideas and projects enhancing the development and improvement of leisure industry in our country. Let us outline some major trends and novelties of the RAAPA EXPO this year:

VR + AR

Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technologies are one of the main trends of the modern entertainment industry. And there’s no surprise that this tendency has been reflected at the show. The number of companies presenting various VR/AR attractions ranging from separate equipment to entire interactive parks has significantly increased this year. Among the most noteworthy exhibitors are CL Corporation (France) with a thrilling VR rafting simulator; Hello Park, a developer of an innovative physical park with immersive experience of interactive space; and VR Platform that created an attraction enabling free movement in virtual reality.  

Classics of the genre

Renowned Italian company Antonio Zamperla SPA has stood out not only for having the largest booth but also for its spectacular attraction - super jet merry-go-round with integrated computer game. This know-how has attracted lots of professionals. Impressive booths with attractions were also presented by PlaySpace, ItalPark, and others.

Higher and higher

Year by year, kiddie playgrounds and sports equipment seize an ever-greater area of the show. RAAPA EXPO is supporting the trend for outdoor activities through numerous manufacturers displaying children playground structures of distinguished design and construction. A huge playground over 5m high produced by KSIL welcomed all the visitors at the very entrance to the show-floor. Height records were also set by multiple inflatables traditionally located at the end of the exposition.

It all starts with the project

Major international companies offering theme parks design and construction joined RAAPA Expo 2019. Those included the operator of the largest indoor amusement park IMG Worlds of Adventure from the United Arab Emirates as well as Australian Sanderson Group Design Limited boasting 30 years’ experience in parks construction all over the world.

Not for the faint-hearted

A true chamber of horrors was built at the expo by THEMEBUILDERS. The naturalness of disposed figures and decorations went over the top. Not every visitor of the show had enough courage to go through the labyrinth. Chances are that this attraction will soon emerge in parks taking this kind of entertainment to a new level.

Attraction+

Along with the entertainment equipment itself, the show hosted various offers of services for the business: attractions mounting, certification and testing of equipment, legal audit of parks, light and sound design, staff training, business process automation systems, consulting services in the entertainment industry, and many others.

Golden exhibitors

RAAPA Gold Medals were awarded to the best exhibits of the show: OtAdoYa (Russia), Polin Waterparks (Turkey), Imlight (Russia), Antonio Zamperla SPA (Italy), KSIL (Russia), Zigong City Ocean Art Co., Ltd (China), CL Corporation (France), Sorel (Russia), Sanderson Group Design Limited (Australia), and AirBlower.ru (Russia).

Visitors

In total, more than 4,000 specialists visited the exhibition over a three-day period: owners and top-managers of parks, family entertainment centers, water parks, representatives of cities’ and regions’ administrations, developers and investors, owners and directors of resorts, hotels, leisure complexes, manufacturers, suppliers and distributors of entertainment equipment, private entrepreneurs, representatives of mass-media, and other related parties.

Educational programme

This year’s business forum was also record-breaking. Almost 500 specialists from Russia and abroad took part in various business trainings, conferences, seminars, and workshops. Presentations were given by leading Russian and foreign experts from Germany, UAE, Belarus, France, Italy, and Turkey. The topic of the entertainment business organization was covered at the ‘Current trends of F&B services in the amusement industry’ seminar, ‘I want to know all about you, to serve you better and to earn more!’ business training (speakers: Pavel Timets and Dina Burganova), ‘Reboot and streamlining of entertainment business’ workshop (speakers: Happylon FEC team, Surgut), ‘What is a scent of “the jungle”? We create profitable ambience in the entertainment center’ business breakfast (hold by the experts of Avira Group of companies), ‘How to grow annually by 30%? “To be or not to be” for arcade machines in the entertainment center’ (speaker – Ludmila Kiseleva). The most massively attended were three conferences: ‘Trends of amusement and leisure parks’ development in Russia: organization of successful operation and effective management’, ‘Leisure industry in the 21st century: from attraction to entertainment complex’, and ‘Safety of amusement rides and playgrounds.

New regulations of 2019

A targeted audience gathered at the ‘Operation and management of waterparks under current conditions’ conference and the ‘Legal protection of entertainment centers and amusement parks’ seminar, both of which were joined by a significant number of specialists. As part of the Expo, Interacademic Students’ Applied Research Conference ‘Present-day amusement industry: vectors of modernization’ was held jointly by Moscow State Institute of Culture and RAAPA.

International award

For the 9th time in a row the Golden Pony Moscow-2019 international awards ceremony (established by the publishing house Facto Edizioni, Italy) took place. The grand ceremony was held at the Gala Dinner dedicated to the Expo opening on March 13. In 2019, the award was won by: Carousel amusement park (Vladivostok), ChaiLand FEC (Saratov), Central Park (Tashkent), Dreamwood park (Yalta), LetoLeto waterpark (Tyumen), Skazka park (Moscow), Mamalak FEC (Bishkek), Yalta Intourist complex (Yalta), DigIt Explorers center (Rostov-on-Don), and Sky Trip activity park (Perm).

GTI follows up the market

GTI also seized the good opportunity of this promotion in time and sent overseas representatives Letitia Chang and Ericson Ju to RAAPA Show along with copies of the GTI Magazine and promotional materials for GTI’s two expos. At the same time, GTI also brought back a lot of the latest information about the Russia game and entertainment market for Chinese insiders. As far as we know, the game and entertainment industry in Russia has been hit by an accident in a well-known local department store, and the government has set many laws and regulations to limit the development of indoor game and entertainment to some extent. Therefore, most of the exhibitors in this exhibition are mainly promoting outdoor facilities. Local buyers also say Russia's terrain (plains in the west and plateaus in the east) is more conducive to the development of the outdoor entertainment industry. Cable cars, Ferris Wheels and other large outdoor equipment are quite popular in the local market. With the progress of this trend, VR equipment is indispensable in the exhibition. Although there are few VR devices in the Russia market and there are far fewer VR exhibitors than outdoor equipment exhibitors, we can also see the popularity of VR devices with the continuous stream of people in some VR booths. In the exhibition, VR equipment mainly includes shooting, haunted house, racing, children's entertainment puzzle and others.

Letitia Chang, the representative of GTI visited the president of RAAPA, Vladimir Gaezdilov (R).

The organizer presented the Appreciation Award to GTI.

Kirill Palman (R), the President of AIC Magazine.

The organizer sincerely welcomes you at the forthcoming RAAPA Expos! The 13th International Exhibition “RAAPA EXPO Autumn-2019” will be held on October 2~4, 2019, at Pavillion 75, VDNH, Moscow. And the 22nd International Exhibition “Amusement Rides and Entertainment Equipment RAAPA EXPO-2019” will also take place at VDNH in March, 2020. What kind of blueprints will be drawn in the Russia market by China’s game entertainment in the future? GTI will wait and see with you.

※The article is published in the GTI Magazine Issue No. 175 in May 2019